I ran a company some years ago where development of our product was delayed, so our investor got anxious. My co-founder knew a guy that ran a one-person telemarketing shop and suggested we give it a try.
His task seemed insurmountable: Cold-call people in the advertising industry, where people constantly call with new products, and get them to buy ads on a non-existing new network with an unproven hardware technology that he couldn't show to the potential customers because it hadn't been produced yet. All he had was a few powerpoint slides.
Within a month he had contracts for a few months paychecks, and our investor was reassured.
So the morale of the story is "Yes, coldcaling definitely works, but it's a pretty difficult artform". Me or my co-founder would never have been able to pull it off. It's about trust and building a personal relationship.
His task seemed insurmountable: Cold-call people in the advertising industry, where people constantly call with new products, and get them to buy ads on a non-existing new network with an unproven hardware technology that he couldn't show to the potential customers because it hadn't been produced yet. All he had was a few powerpoint slides.
Within a month he had contracts for a few months paychecks, and our investor was reassured.
So the morale of the story is "Yes, coldcaling definitely works, but it's a pretty difficult artform". Me or my co-founder would never have been able to pull it off. It's about trust and building a personal relationship.